KANGXI 1662 – 1722 Chinese Taste Porcelain

A Kangxi Famille Verte Porcelain Brushpot. Decorated with a Scholar Riding a Dragon-Headed Fish and With a Poem. This Interior has a Firing Fault Which has Original Over-Painting.
SOLD

Condition
Damaged, a firing crack and a crack ; a large open firing crack c.45 mm long, this has been painted over with prunus. It is highly unusual for this too happen. The exterior of this crack has also been painted over but the edges of the crack have shallow flake chips. Next to this firing fault is a long crack with some of the glaze has flaked to the the exterior. Glaze fritting around the base edge.
Size
Height : 13 cm (5 inches)
Provenance
From a Private English Collection of Chinese and Japanese Porcelain.
Stock number
23098
References
For a Kangxi Famille Verte brushpot of this pattern see : Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 23-24th of May 1978, lot 152.

Photos

Information

Brushpots, Bitong :
Bitong, brushpots are not found in 17th or early 18th century European inventories unlike some other ceramic forms which fore fill a specific Chinese function. Blanc de chine `libation cups`, were for example, were made for drinking wine in China but they were imported in large numbers into the West. There curious forms appealed to Western tastes and were used in European displays or converted with the addition of a gilt bronze handle to become a bonbon dishes. Brushpots on the other hand seem to have been made exclusively for the Chinese domestic market, more specifically for the scholar literati class.Bitong are an essential part of literati`s desk, what is often referred to as a scholars desk. Other scholarly items for the desk might include a brush-rest, inkstone (for grinding the dry ink) a water pot for the water to add to the inkstone, a brushwasher as well as a table screen.